You’ve undoubtedly seen a whole bunch of blog headlines in the last couple of days, that read along the lines of “New series of Red Dwarf confirmed!!!!11″. This all stemmed from some blog called WhatCulture reporting something that Danny said at a convention in Scarborough – namely that they’ll be recording in October, ready for broadcast in Autumn 2015.

Firstly, it does indeed seem highly plausible that this kind of schedule is likely – Richard Naylor has previously mentioned 2015 for the series going to air, and we’ve all been speculating that XI could well have a similar schedule to X. But that’s not to say that any of this is remotely “confirmed” or “official”. This is, at best, the current intended plan, but as far as we know, the series hasn’t even been commissioned by Dave yet. We won’t know that it has for sure until we get a press release from UKTV and/or reddwarf.co.uk. A member of the cast shooting their mouth off at a convention is a pretty good indication that things are moving in the right direction, but it’s categorically NOT a confirmation. There is very, very little doubt that Red Dwarf XI WILL be commissioned by Dave. It just hasn’t happened yet.

It’s quite annoying that this keeps happening every couple of months. Apart from anything else, when the news actually is announced, a load of people will just shrug and assume it’s old news, rather than attending one of G&T’s official street parties, taking place up and down the country. It also puts unnecessary pressure on all parties involved to rush things through, and rushing is never the best way to ensure a smooth-running series of Red Dwarf.

So just fucking calm down, alright? We know Doug is writing new scripts, we know they’re aiming for a 2015 airing, and we reckon that Baby Cow Productions are somehow involved. Anything on top of that is pure speculation at this stage, but it surely can’t be long before actual, real, three-dimensional details are released through official channels. Let’s just be patient for now, eh? We’ve only had one and a half new series in the last fifteen years, surely we can wait a little bit longer before prematurely blowing our wads?

I read that XI is happening in 2015, will focus on three new young leads, but feature some recurring appearances by the older original cast, there is a new director onboard who’s just done some other sci fi thingy, and it’s all being bankrolled by Disney. Oh and it’s called VII not XI.